Spirit Communications and its 11 independent ILEC partners have taken a page out of the Google Fiber playbook by launching a “GigUP South Carolina” campaign, illustrating the utility of 1 Gbps FTTH services.

The goal of the GigUP South Carolina campaign is to promote the advances in the state’s gigabit internet capabilities that result from Spirit’s unique business model focused on serving the state’s telecom needs.

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Similar to efforts in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a city that’s been able to attract new startups and technology talent through EPB and Comcast’s 1 Gbps service rollouts, the GigUP partnership is touting South Carolina as a hub for businesses and consumers to either locate a new business or relocate.

To date, Spirit Communications and its member-owners have built over 1,000,000 miles of gigabit-ready fiber infrastructure. Spirit said that its members will continue to expand their fiber platforms in order to accomplish GigUP South Carolina’s long-term vision of attracting new businesses to South Carolina.

Spirit itself has continued to expand its fiber network presence, enabling it to win large wholesale deals with large wireless operators.

After winning a South Carolina dark fiber network contract in 2015, Spirit was awarded a contract (PDF) to build out dark fiber to an additional 215 sites in North Carolina, for example.

Set to be completed by the third quarter of 2018, Spirit will build fiber to over 215 towers to expand the Wireless Carrier’s coverage in Charlotte, Winston Salem, Greensboro, Durham and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Similar to Google Fiber’s Fiberhood concept, Spirit is encouraging residents and businesses in South Carolina to express their interest in getting FTTH and FTTP services. Upon completing this build, Spirit will add over 650 miles of high count, metro fiber to its existing footprint of over 8,500 miles

Businesses and consumers can go to GigUP South Carolina’s new website, where they can initiate the process for gaining access to significantly faster internet speeds.